What does each order really cost you to pick, pack and ship? True fully-loaded cost per order, 3PL comparison & margin health gauge.
"What does each order really cost me?" Most sellers answer with the shipping label and stop there. The real number includes pick-and-pack labour, packaging, your warehouse overhead spread across orders, and the returns everyone forgets to count. This calculator builds the fully-loaded cost per order — direct and indirect — and tells you whether it's healthy against your AOV.
Enter monthly orders, items per order, and honest pick-and-pack minutes (time five orders and average them — guesses are always low). Labour cost should be fully loaded: wage plus taxes and benefits. Add packaging, monthly overhead (rent, warehouse software, admin time), return rate and cost per return, and your AOV. Optionally drop in a 3PL quote to see the outsource comparison.
Overhead per order falls as volume rises — that's the "double the volume" scenario. But overtime season does the opposite: labour at 1.5× can wipe out the gain. Plan peak staffing with our Peak-Season Staffing Planner, and check the carrier side with the Shipping Cost Estimator.
Yes — value it at what you'd pay someone else to do it. 'Free' founder labour hides the true cost and makes scaling decisions wrong later.
4–8 minutes for single-item orders in a decent layout; 8–15 for multi-item. Over 15 minutes usually means the warehouse layout — not the staff — is the problem.
Roughly when your fully-loaded cost per order (this calculator's number) exceeds 3PL quotes for 2–3 months running, or when volume spikes force overtime. Get quotes before peak season, not during it.
Because a 10% return rate at $12 per return adds $1.20 to every order you ship — invisible in most sellers' maths, very visible in their margins.
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